Why, Netflix? Why would you do this to us? Just when we thought we were friends, you go and stab us in the back.

The streaming giant has announced it is to crack down on customers using proxies to illegally access content available outside their own country.

Putting an end to the heavily frowned-upon but frequently practiced process of running proxies and VPN services to trick Netflix's servers into thinking you're accessing from a different country - thus letting you watch the bounty of region-locked content - the new measures will come into place within weeks.

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"In coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are," Netflix's VP of content delivery architecture, David Fullagar, wrote in a blog post. "We are confident this change won't impact members not using proxies."

At present, licensing restrictions mean Netflix can only stream certain content in certain regions - so our American cousins get access to a load of films and TV shows we're missing out on and vice versa.

Although suggesting the company is working hard to create a universally-accessible content pool, Fullagar added: "We have a ways to go before we can offer people the same films and TV series everywhere.

"In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location."

While Netflix hasn't outlined exactly how it plans to block popular VPN and proxy serious, this is a dark day for the streaming addict.